Time at Home...get to know this new family...

Oh the tricks and milestones we celebrate! Sometime this week we will have 2 nights in a row of sleeping thru the night! Everytime I brag on Elizabeth and Catherine both getting a full night's sleep, one or the other of them wakes up and is up for 1-2 hrs. UGH!...this jetlag! I KNOW it's almost over! ^>^

Catherine and Elizabeth get along SPLENDIDLY! Catherine DOES like to check out my level of love for her periodically, tho, but nothing abnormal! Cath can make Elizabeth giggle faster than anyone. She's a GREAT big sis! She's gotten the 1st laugh, the 1st kiss, the 1st hug, ...she'll probably get the 1st walk too!

Elizabeth is having several doc tests run this week. She had *4* shots last Friday and seemed to weather them and their aftermath w/ just a little irritation. The nurse said "WOW! She's tough!" We have to 'test' for all kinds of blood stuff...nothing scary...just making sure on what vaccines we need to re-do. [we re-did ALL of them for Catherine].

Elizabeth looks to be a little more introverted than Cath...she O.D.ed on Sunday, had a quiet Monday, and seems to be on a better cadence this week.

TRICKS: She crawled a real crawl - from living room to kitchen [she was hungry ^>^] - for the 1st time on Monday (the 8th!). (She's been sitting up, leaning out prone, rolling over and sitting up again, and so on to get around... ...that process just got quickened ^>^ ) We are FINALLY on TABLE FOODS too - that's huge! Now if we can move off a heated bottle, we'll be in GREAT shape! A "high 5" is in the making, she signed 'more' tonight, AND her wildest 'trick': she blows her nose at will ^>^ [it's just a funny noise unless she has a cold ^>^ ]

This pix is tonight post-bathtime - obviously: ...Big Sister/Little Sister shirts...and all their CWA (Christian World Adoption - CWA) and other China bears.

Your notes and cards and emails and texts and above all, PRAYERS are amazingly wonderful and appreciated!!!!!!!!
Blessings and love to you all!

Catherine & Elizabeth in Changsha

This pretty much describes what the girls thought of the 'photo shoot' we did on our next to last day in Changsha (now almost 2 wks ago)! I have 2 DELIGHTFUL books of pix and a 'screen' of each of the girls, plus the CD these came from. WHAT a TREASURE!

Cath got to have her hair all done up and make-up on...Elizabeth didn't smile for a one, but we got some pix to treasure!

We are SLOWLY getting schedules back to normal. Catherine is doing better than Elizabeth and I are. So THANKS AGAIN for your wonderful prayers, notes, calls, gifts, emails, texts...your support and TLC means OH SO much to us!

Blessings and love to you all!

L, C, & E!

Elizabeth & Mimi en rt home AND our travel 'cousins'

We're home!

WOW!
The best thing about Sept 27 was that it was Elizabeth's 1st b-day and we got home! It was incredibly long and fairly rough trip...the planes were fine, food OK, but sleep was nonexistent for at least one of us at all times on that long trip. The HongKong>Chicago was hard, but we made it! AND Elizabeth will be able to say her 1st b-day was literally 36 hrs long! ^>^

Jetlag is harder than i remember...that stay-up-too-late feeling is still here on day 3 at home. BUT - Catherine Eason just left after spending 3 nights w/ us to help organize, order, re-enter, play w/ Catherine, debrief, sort, feed, and more! She was God-sent! She'll need 3 days to recoup from all she did for us!

We all can't thank you enough for your prayers! And don't stop! There is SO much new for all of us...we haven't put Elizabeth in her exersaucer and jump seat yet b/c they are such loud colors ^>^, but she can tear it up on the walker: including LIFTING it over the quarter-inch threshold kitchen<>living room!

We have a well-baby check up this week i am really looking forward to. Elizabeth is a bit behind in moving to table food (which was NO problem for Catherine). She eats OK, but not to FULL, so fills with a bottle which means we are doing a lot of diaper and bed changing as we figure out these food<>sleep<>play<>potty schedules. ...that makes nights long and weird. As many of you traveling w/ children know, you can rejoice w/ us in our glee that Elizabeth is "regular" and that is a huge blessing amongst all this change for her.

Catherine is a FANTASTIC big sister! She and Elizabeth just GIGGLE at each other! It's delightful! Cath can get a smile and a lunge and a giggle out of Elizabeth faster than anyone!

I'm going to post a few pix and get more details to you here soon. This will be our primary way of getting info out to folks for a while. I'm hoping to be off for the month of October, but we'll see how that goes. There is PLENTY to acclaimate to! ^>^

Thank you again for your prayers, texts, calls, emails, visits, and ALL your support! Don't stop! We love and appreciate each of you!
Blessings and love -
L! for C & E too!

Update from Catherine!

Tomorrow we have our last appointment - a VISA appt at the American Consolate (sp?). We leave here on Thursday a.m.: early flt to Hong Kong, a little layover, and leave HK at noon-ish our time (midnight Thurs a.m. your time), for Chicago and then on to Chas/Mt Pl! Prayers now can be for the trip home.

Here's some comments from Catherine about her sister:

"I can make her laugh. She gave me 2 kisses. One was slobbery. She get up by herself in her crib. She has 6 teeth - 4 on top. She has 4 more to go. We'll be home soon. I bought a race car, maybe I can bring it to school and show you how it works. It's not a race car real, it's just a remote control race car. Maybe we can take turns. Oh I'm sorry we can't because it doesn't have much battery...it only has like 5 min of battery."

Stay tuned again for pix!
Blessings and love to all!
L! and C!
...and Elizabeth and Mom too!

Guangzhou at last!

We are in a wonderful city of 11million (i think) just over an hour from Hong Kong. We'll be here til we leave on Thursday a.m. I hope to send pix to Dad to post - can't get them to post today. ...stay tuned!

Elizabeth had her medical exam today - a formality mostly. She's GREAT! 20lbs and 76cm! She's the oldest of our 4 babies, but not the biggest. We have loved getting to know our "travel cousins" and now are enjoying the GREAT food here and catching up on sleep. The colds seem to be subsiding, so we are all feeling better.

Now we wait for papers and for the Visa appointment and swearing in at the American Consolate.

Please continue prayers for safety, good health, attachment, knowing in our heart of hearts that there is enough love to go around!!!...AND sharing that too!

We are staying in the White Swan Hotel - WHAT a treat: http://www.whiteswanhotel.com/eng/Public/index.asp if you want to check it out! There are several special needs children around in addition to the babies. It's prayerfully tear jerking to see these elementary-age children with eye problems or some kind of facial abnormality (which are no problem for our docs) walk shyly or exuberantly with their new parents thru the sensory overloads of this hotel, town, and now new lives. Mom and I weep 'happy tears' (as Catherine says) of HOPE for these new families and are all the more grateful for ours.

Thanks for the notes, prayers, prayer beads, cards, and all the different ways you all are supporting us! (and Dad too!!!)

We'll be home FRIDAY! ...til then, stay tuned for pix! ^>^
Blessings and love -
L!...and Catherine, Elizabeth, and Anne!!!

Changsha>>Guangzhoa

...ooooI hope this posts...the only english on this screen is what i'm typing and 'Catherine's Little Sister' in the upper corner ^>^ ...so i hope it posts in english ;-)

We are great! TIRED, but great! It's Sat, Sept 22, just after 3pm here in Changsha, Hunan and we leave here in the a.m. for Guangzhoa! We are REALLY ready to get to this final leg. Things are good:

Mom is AMAZING and a PRICELESS help and support and JOY!!! I only PRAY i can do for Catherine and Elizabeth as she has done for me!

Catherine is a GREAT big sis! She's of course jealous, but LOVES entertaining Elizabeth and reall yis a good help! She's not getting enough exercise, so ran like a crazy woman when we got to a park w/ the group today.

Elizabeth MayLin Turnage is a delight! She's got a thick cold right now, so she's a little testy. But she's showing us that she'll be just the kind of sister that Catherine needs :-) We hope to post another pix sometime after we get to Guangzhoa.

Tonight we get the girls' Chinese passports with their American names in them, then one more stop in the Washington, DC of adoptions: Guangzhoa to get their physical exams and then their American visas, then we are OFF.

...Fun Elizabeth tricks: she blows her nose whenever she needs...whether you are ready or not! ^>^
...and she shakes her head and giggles and smiles HUGE whenever she sees Catherine play peek-a-boo over the back of the chair in the restaurant - like "i can't believe this is MY sister"!

Yall's prayers have been amazing supports for us! Thank you all for these and your notes too! Don't stop!

Blessings and love to you all!
L!
...for Catherine, Elizabeth, and Mom too!